34pc increase in legal disputes as companies take greater steps to protect
profits

The number of commercial cases heard by the European Court of Justice has reached the highest level since the start of the financial crisis, The Telegraph can reveal.

New figures provided by Thomson Reuters legal show that more businesses are facing the "huge expense" of legal disputes as the number of cases heard by the court increased by 34pc from 2009 to 2012.

Of the 259 commercial disputes heard in 2012, 32 involved UK companies; 12pc of the total figure for all countries.

During the financial crisis, the number of taxation-related commercial cases increased by 45pc, from 44 cases in 2009 to 64 in 2012.

Laurence Gormley, professor of European law at the University of Gronigen in the Netherlands, said that pressure to cut budget deficits has resulted in an "aggressive pursit" of businesses thought to be underpaying tax by authorities.

"That friction means more legal disputes between HMRC and businesses, which is almost inevitable considering the amounts of money at stake,” he said.

“Businesses are also more willing to take legal action against their competitors in order to fight for market share and to protect their margins, helping to propel a rise in intellectual property and competition cases.”

The number of competition cases heard at the court jumped from 19 in 2009 to 30 in 2012, a rise of 58pc. Meanwhile, intellectual property cases increased by 48pc over the three year period, from 31 in 2009 to 46 in 2012.

Google agreed a deal with the European Union yesterday following a three-year antitrust court battle over the way that it handles links to rival products.

The search giant was accused of displaying its own services more prominently in search results.

Professor Gormley said: “Antitrust cases in Europe continue to make the headlines as the EU takes a more active role in maintaining the integrity of the internal market. The EU’s high profile battle in the European Court against Google continues to rumble on after three years and Gazprom – the largest extractor of natural gas in the world – is now seeking to settle its antitrust fight with the EU."

“A lot of competition rules are set out at the European level, meaning frequent cases at the European Court of Justice when there is a dispute.”

“Most businesses are far from happy to be sucked into costly and drawn out legal proceedings that might result from their case having a European law element as referral to the European Court of Justice can incur huge expense and add years to a case.”

Last month, David Cameron hit out at EU red tape, labelling regulations introduced by Brussels as "burdensome, unjustified and premature".

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Cameron said that the European Commission believes that removing regulations is an "act of self harm".

"Some in the European Commission seem to think that if they're not producing new regulations they're somehow not doing their job, and that removing existing regulations is somehow an act of self-harm, while many in the European Parliament are tempted to gold plate every piece of regulation," he said.